Salt Creek Ranch

Salt Creek Ranch is located on West 4th Avenue in Nickerson Kansas. It had passed down through family from somewhere in the 21st century until Miguel Hartman died in 2363 at the ripe age of 108 with no kids, no spouse, and none of his extended relations were interested in inheriting it. It passed to the Earth Heritage bureau to determine who would take over stewardship.

As it had been a working farm up until maybe a decade before Miguel's death, the Heritage bureau flagged it to be maintained as such and designated a heritage site. Most locations flagged to become heritage sites are quickly spoken for by people eager to become custodians, but something about this location meant that people passed it over repeatedly when they were offered it. Finally when the bureau was about to offer it up for redevelopment into something else because the resources needed for restoration of the decaying buildings and equipment was soon approaching more than the land was worth, Earth was hit with a flood of refugees out of Romulan space. Among them were Mktek and S'vekuk, who had been Ale brewers on Romulus until the nova forced evacuation.

Their case worker saw a potential for them to take over the ranch, and was aware of it because their spouse worked for the Heritage bureau. The two were so relieved to be offered the land that appeared to be a step up from the small patch they'd had on Romulus, they quickly agreed to become its custodians. S'vekuk did suggest renaming it to Salt Creek Acres, as she liked the word Acres better than Ranch when she'd encountered both in her efforts to start learning Federation Standard when it became apparent Earth was to become their home, but the hurdles to rename the ranch as it was entered into the Heritage database as Salt Creek Ranch already due to its history under that name, caused Mktek to talk her down.

The heritage bureau sent a team to do the major repair work on all the buildings and existing equipment, getting the main farmhouse habitable within a month, and the rest of the buildings and equipment serviceable over the course of the next six months. From there Mktek and S'vekuk were largely left to their own devices with a set of guidelines and a promise that a case worker from the bureau would check in from time to time, and was available to field their questions during business hours in San Francisco.

The first new feature they added to the Ranch was a small greenhouse attached to the farm house, where they started their efforts to adapt the grains and other plants they'd brought seed for from Romulus to Earth growing conditions without losing what made them unique.